Electoral reforms and the 2018 presidential election in Mexico

• In Event: 2018. The Mexican Electoral Earthquake

Abstract

Mexico dismantled the hegemonic party system that functioned effectively during the second half of the last century. That authoritarian regime was transformed peacefully as a result of the coincidence of two processes. On the one hand, a series of institutional changes and, on the other, the implementation of political pluralism.

The institutional changes were the result of a long process of electoral reforms. Since 1976, after each presidential election, political-electoral reforms were carried out, with one exception. The exception occurred just after the alternation in the presidency of the Republic in 2000. That can be considered as the culminating moment of the process of substitution of the hegemonic system, for another plural and competitive one.

The reforms modified the integration of the Legislative Branch, the form of government of Mexico City (the country’s capital), expanded the political rights of citizens, opened causes for the recognition of new political parties, endowed them with prerogatives and public financing and established fair conditions of competition among them. They also placed, in the hands of an autonomous body, the impartial organization of the elections and created a jurisdictional body to hear and resolve the disagreements of citizens and contenders in the electoral processes and to qualify the results of the elections. Without that institutional scaffolding the election of 2018 could not have been carried out. But, paradoxically, this electoral process has reversed the implementation of pluralism.

Author

• Leonardo Valdés Zurita, ICGDE, BUAP, México